Catalogue Number
NMLH.2023.69.6
Object Name
Poster
Title
Technology as new god
Date
1972-1982
Description
The Poster Collective was a collective formed in 1971 at the Slade School of Art,  a group formed to initially produce posters in response to the miners strike and on the wars in both Vietnam and Ireland. It was formed on the basis of developing a coherent visual style, which addressed the political issues of the time. This included the armed struggles against colonialism in Africa, the struggle of women for equal rights and the continuing struggle against racism. The collective was active in the 70's and 80's, producing posters on a wide range of issues, including for educational purposes. The group was not-for-profit and used a variety of hand-printing techniques to create their posters. This poster is part of a set, 'Future Fictions', produced when the collective moved to the North London Polytechnic is a set of posters reflecting on technological development and leads us to address environmental issues of today. This is the sixth poster in the series; it is a black poster with pink background highlights, white text, and a yellow silhouette of a robot. Text reads: "Technology as New God" Smaller text at the bottom of the poster reads: "From the late 19thC to the outbreak of WW1 a series of sweeping changes in technology and culture created the basis of a mass society. Technology dominated the imagination as never before. It was the impact of electricity and the application of combustion engines to all branches of industry that firmed the basis of this technological revolution. Innovations including the telephone, wireless telegraphy, X-ray, cinema, the automobile and airplane followed in quick succession. Batch production methods transformedthe work process subordinating workers to the speed-up within machine technology.
